Dorothy Mae Fullmer Oaks

Dorothy Mae Fullmer Oaks died peacefully on December 22, 2023 at the University of Utah hospital. Dorothy Mae was born to David S. Fullmer and Hazel Bertie Riggs Fullmer on April 14, 1930 in her parents’ bedroom in Seattle, Washington.  Dorothy was the third of four children.

There were two events in her childhood that deeply affected Dorothy for her entire life. When she was in first grade, an accident occurred and she fell into a wringer washing machine and her face was severely cut.  She suffered with the scars for the rest of her life. Not long after Dorothy turned 13, her mother started feeling very tired and began losing weight without an obvious cause; after consulting with several doctors, Hazel was diagnosed with tuberculosis.  She passed away shortly before Dorothy turned 14.  It was soon after the death of her mother that her father remarried and Ercell became her stepmother.

Dorothy always loved music! Following her mother's footsteps, she began taking piano lessons when she was 8 and became an excellent pianist and organist. Starting when she was still in High School, nearly all her church callings were in music as a ward organist or pianist.

After high school, Dorothy attended a trade school to train as a secretary. She developed excellent typing and shorthand skills which helped her land good jobs. She was most proud of her job as secretary for one of the top executives at the World Bank in Washington D.C. during the 1970's.

She served a full-time LDS mission at a time when it was rare for women to serve a mission. She went to the Texas-Louisiana Mission with headquarters in Houston, Texas. She spent most of her mission working in the mission office as a secretary to the mission president. It was in the mission office that she met Elder Hyrum L. Oaks, from Odgen, Utah.  She was released from her mission in December, 1952, and was soon on her way to attend BYU in Provo, Utah.  There she reconnected with Hyrum Oaks, who had also been recently released from his mission.  They married in the Idaho Falls Temple on June 8, 1953.

Hyrum and Dorothy lived in Utah, Nevada. Pennsylvania, Virginia, California, and then returned to Utah, having 8 children along the way.

In her thirties, Dorothy started having some medical problems, and was eventually diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.  In 1977 this caused her to retire from her job at the World Bank.

In February of 2016, her husband, Hyrum, passed away. In early 2020, She met Robert Kirk and they were married on November 14, 2020. Robert has been an attentive and thoughtful husband who helped bring much needed joy and fun to her life.

Dorothy moved into assisted living in 2014, and has been there ever since. In the nearly ten years she has lived there, she made many friends and was very loved by the staff. For this reason we have decided to have her services there.
Dorothy is preceded in death by her father, (David), Mother (Hazel) and step-mother (Ercell); brothers Ray Riggs Fullmer, Lynn LeRoy Fullmer, sister Irene Beth Fullmer Berrett, and grandson, Marshall Tyler Oaks Coe.

Her progeny includes 8 children – Vickie (Brian), Debra (Don), Wayne (Glenda), Adam (Diana), Karen (Bruce), Diana (Leander), Susan (Dana), Joel, 48 grandchildren and 87 great-grandchildren.

Memorial services will be held on Saturday, January 6 from 10-11 am.  It will be held at Capitol Hill Assisted and Senior Living, 76 South 500 East, Salt Lake City, Utah 84102